Remains
Mahalakshmi Kannappan
Solo Exhibition
12 – 20 September 2026, 11am to 7pm
"Remains" extends my ongoing exploration of charcoal as a material that moves through different states. In this work, charcoal begins as powder, is mixed into liquid, formed into sheets, dried, broken, layered, and reassembled as a low floor-based installation.
Placed directly on the ground, the work allows gravity, weight, and accumulation to become part of its structure. Large charcoal surfaces are held together with fractured sheets, loose shards, and compressed edges, suggesting a body that has gone through pressure and transformation but has not fully disappeared.
Rather than presenting breakage as collapse, "Remains" considers what continues to hold after change. The work carries traces of making, drying, cracking, arranging, and settling. It reflects on impermanence, material memory, and the fragile persistence of what is left behind.
About the Artist(s)
Mahalakshmi Kannappan is a Singapore-based visual artist whose practice is rooted in the transformation of charcoal. She works with charcoal as a material that moves through different states — from powder and liquid to sheets, fragments, surfaces, and spatial forms.
Through layered works and floor-based installations, she explores impermanence, pressure, fracture, material memory, and what remains after change. Kannappan holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, and has exhibited in Singapore and internationally.